Market Watch | Bitcoin | $12,710 | 7 day: +12% | | Ethereum | $391 | 7 day: +4.1% | | All crypto | $385b | 7 day: +7.2% | | Bitcoin dominance | 61.1% | 7 day: +2.4% | Prices as of 4:30 p.m. EDT
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 Paypal CEO Dan Schulman Paypal will allow customers to buy, sell, and shop using cryptocurrencies. PayPal has 346m active customer accounts and 26m active merchants in its network. - Bitcoin is now 6% higher than before Paypal's announcement.
- Paypal (NASDAQ:PYPL) has rallied 5% today.
- The global payment processor announced that its customers may use bitcoin (BTC), Ether/Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC) for buying, selling, and shopping.
- Venmo, PayPal's social payment platform, will enable cryptocurrencies on its network starting next year, according to a Reuters report dated Oct. 21.
- In an interview, President CEO Dan Schulman said that the new services would likely boost the usage of virtual currencies on a global scale, and prepare the PayPal network for any upcoming central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
- The San Jose-based company processed approximately $222b in payments during Q2 2020. Paypal's trailing 12 months (TTM) gross profit is $8.6b.
- PayPal secured a conditional license from the office of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing it to partner with Paxos in its new cryptocurrency offering.
- PayPal is collaborating with central banks in preparation for different forms of digital assets, including potential CBDCs.
- Bloomberg reports that Paypal customers will not be able to transfer cryptocurrencies purchased outside of Paypal into their account, nor vice versa.
Reuters 
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 Vaira VÄ«Ä·e-Freiberga, President of Latvia Latvia's Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) warns residents about cryptocurrency frauds. - Latvia's regulators, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC), have published a stern warning on their website to inform residents about cryptocurrency frauds.
- Most cryptocurrency projects originating in Latvia are unregulated, with vanishingly few projects gaining FCMC clearance.
- The notice mentions that the FCMC is noticing an increasing number of cryptocurrency scams, citing various examples.
- Latvian regulators also shared views on virtual assets, advising non-professional individuals interested in cryptocurrencies to contact a licensed bank or investment brokers, and to steer clear from seemingly convenient investment "alternatives."
- Latvia is the third poorest country in the European Union.
CoinTelegraph
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OKEx exchange plans to resume peer-to-peer trading for CNY-, INR-, and VND-denominated fiat pairs. The co-founder of the exchange holding over $3b in digital assets, Mingxing "Star" Xu, was detained by police last week, causing the exchange to halt all crypto withdrawals. We first reported the incident here. - The Seychelles-based and dominant cryptocurrency exchange for Chinese residents, OKEx, announced resuming peer-to-peer trading functionality.
- A blog published on Oct. 21 mentions that trading will be available in pairs denominated in "Chinese Yen" (CNY), Indian Rupee, and Vietnamese Dong.
- OKEx suspended withdrawals for digital assets held by the platform on Oct. 15 due to the unavailability of Mingxin Xu, one of the exchange's two key holders. (Owners of the private keys of cryptocurrency wallets have sole authority to initiate transactions from those wallets.)
OKEx
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BitMEX exchange rushes account holders to complete know your customer (KYC) verification by Nov. 5 ⏤ months earlier than its originally planned Feb. 21, 2021. - Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX, previously charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for unregistered securities trading and violations of banking acts, has moved up the deadline for its "User Verification Programme" to Nov. 5.
- BitMEX's parent company, 100x Group, has relieved all founders of their obligations and has hastened KYC verifications in order to comply with laws which authorities allege that it was violating.
- According to 100x's latest announcement, all BitMEX traders must complete identity verification no later than Nov. 5 to open a new position, increase the size of an existing position, or earn affiliate payouts.
- BitMEX's blog also mentions that starting Dec. 5, all withdrawals from the exchange will require ID verification.
- 100x Group will directly contact unverified users holding open positions.
- BitMEX claims that robust KYC processes are essential for the exchange's ongoing service and that its "KYC-free days" are a thing of the past, according to 100x's new chief compliance officer, Malcolm Wright.
Coindesk
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 Bahamas' central bank expands issuance of its CBDC, Sand Dollars, beyond the pilot phase. - The Central Bank of Bahamas has been paying a Singapore-based consultancy, NZIA, to develop its CBDC called "Sand Dollars" for several years.
- The Sand Dollar project announced via a Facebook post that the CBDC is now available "nationwide."
- The central bank has not confirmed how much CBDC it has actually issued into circulation. For context, its pilot phase consisted of less than $50,000 worth of San Dollars in the Exumas and Abaco islands.
- The central bank pegs the Bahamian Dollar to USD at a 1:1 ratio.
- The "nationwide" launch phase will include private-sector entities such as banks and credit unions.
- Sand Dollars can be sent and received through mobile applications.
- The central bank says that various merchants will begin accepting payment with Sand dollars via a government-approved electronic wallet.
- The transaction fee for processing Sand Dollar transactions will be "negligible."
- According to its website, the central bank aims to make sand dollars (pegged to the Bahamian dollar) accessible to 393,000 residents of the Bahamas ⏤ substantially the country's entire population.
- See our prior coverage of Sand Dollars here and here.
CoinTelegraph
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 Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks U.S. Currency Comptroller Brian Brooks speaks in favor of decentralization during a D.C. Fintech Week interview. - Brian Brooks, acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, participated in a D.C. Fintech Week interview on Oct. 19.
- He said that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is working to identify the risks and clarify the use cases of cryptocurrencies for banks.
- Brooks spoke positively of decentralized systems generally, citing their benefits of speed, cost, and resilience.
- During the interview, Brooks mentioned certain kinds of tokens that require more attention, such as any privacy-centric token, which he said "presents law enforcement and privacy issues." He also flagged foreign stablecoins that may present monetary policy challenges to the world's central bankers.
- On Sept. 21, Brooks issued full regulatory guidelines concerning stablecoins, enabling national banks and federal savings associations to provide services to stablecoins issuers within the U.S. (His July 22 statement had already indicated that banks could offer custodial services for customers' crypto assets.)
- Former Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase exchange, Brian Brooks said he sees no sense in paying a foreign exchange fee for making cross-border transactions in a world with an increasing rate of globalization and integration.
CoinTelegraph
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Quick Hits: - Chinese blockchain consortium FISCO BCOS boasts that blockchain-based health records have enabled Chinese to resume mainland tourism, including Macau, since May. The system recognizes ID codes of the mainland's Guangdong health system and has allowed a purported 17m mainland Chinese tourists to verify their health status when entering Macau's autonomous region.
- Rowland Marcus, NAC Foundation's chief executive and leader of the "AML BitCoin" cryptocurrency, Andrade, has filed a motion to dismiss a SEC lawsuit that alleges Andrade and his partner, Jack Abramoff, defrauded investors out of $5.4m.
- Burkhard Balz, an executive board member of Deutsche Bundesbank, says that although Germany's central bank is involved in CBDC research, the bank is also looking for alternative solutions that would not include Eurozone CBDC issuance. Balz says that European residents should think of any digital euro or CBDC as a payment method, but not as an investment.
- Chargebee's Change Summit gathers the world's leading champions of change including Guy Kawasaki, David Cancel (Drift), and Bill Macaitis (ex Slack). Save your seat.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Written and curated by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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